Do you use Kaspersky Anti Virus? (1 Viewer)

[Gromett]

You may want to remove it from your computer and move to an alternative.

There is a lot of talk about Russian Government involvement in modifications to the software to spy.

It is probably negative U.S. propaganda, however it is not worth the risk in my opinion.

The main source for this latest part of this story is The Wall Street Journal which is not really a trustworthy source. However many other sources in the tech industry have been commenting around this for some time.

The U.S. government including the security agencies have all banned this software from their computers...

There have been enough flags raised now...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41580850
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-used-russian-state-hackers-trawl-us-secrets/

 

[Welsh girl]

I did use that a lot in my early days of laptop use but now I use tablets . mostly and use ÀVG paid version on my phone and tablets.

 

[JJ]

NEVER EVER NEVER NEVER EVER.

JJ

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[Oscar]

@Gromett - what's a good alternative on a laptop? Thanks

 

[Flamenca]

@Gromett What is your opinion of AVG? I had a problem with the latest update and AVG Internet Security (paid version) on one of my computers went into Passive Mode (their jargon for switched off) because the software 'thought' another security package was running on the pc which there wasn't. Although AVG support sorted it out for me the experience slightly dented my faith in the product. Should I be concerned?

 

[Wildbill]

My brother put it on one of my lap top for me when he done sum work i removed it as soon as i fund out it was Russian for i worked in Russia and know even till this day its a secret stat any opportunity they didn't even try to hid the name
Kaspersky it's in the name any thing that comes out of Russia should be treat with suspicion come on @Gromett pleas tell me you didn't have it installed
bill

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[DavidG58]

It sounds like a virus, don't know about anti virus,

either that or its the Russian woman who keeps asking me to marry her

 

[JJ]

If Gromett had Kaspersky on his computer it would have been to spy on the Russians, not the other way round.

JJ

 

[buttons]

You may want to remove it from your computer and move to an alternative.

There is a lot of talk about Russian Government involvement in modifications to the software to spy.

It is probably negative U.S. propaganda, however it is not worth the risk in my opinion.

The main source for this latest part of this story is The Wall Street Journal which is not really a trustworthy source. However many other sources in the tech industry have been commenting around this for some time.

The U.S. government including the security agencies have all banned this software from their computers...

There have been enough flags raised now...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41580850
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-used-russian-state-hackers-trawl-us-secrets/

My son who works in US gave me the same advice recently.

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[PhilandMena]

Bitdefender for me !

 

[Gromett]

I will answer all your questions here in one shot. @Wildbill @Flamenca @Oscar

No, I don't use AVG, Kaspersky or any other AV software. I use Linux and have massive security protections in place to prevent security issues. I run ClamAV periodically on my servers however.
I run NoScript, uBlock Origin and have a custom hosts file on my system to prevent nasties running in my browser. I never click on links in emails, I don't install software from third parties and never open email attachments. In well over 30 years of computing I have never had a virus infection except when done deliberately for forensic reasons. I have a custom firewall that prevents any and all outgoing connections that have not been authorised by myself. I also have network and process monitoring tools running such as iftop. Basically nothing happens on my system without me knowing about it.

When it comes to infections I prefer a condom to a post infection injection

I can't recommend an alternative as I don't use windows. However, for systems where I do have some input I always recommend the free MS AV software. Window Defender on latest versions, and on earlier versions windows Security essentials. This is free, from a (relatively) trusted source and does not impact the performance of your system and is not bloated with other unwanted features.

 

[pappajohn]

NEVER EVER NEVER NEVER EVER.

JJ

Just to confirm JJ, you never have or will use it ?

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[JJ]

Just to confirm JJ, you never have or will use it ?

I confirm this Mr PJ...

JJ

 

[jockaneezer]

Bugger, I've got my missile launch codes on my pc ! Well, when I said missile launch codes, I meant I'd ordered a box of matches from Tesco online to let my rockets off with on Bonfire night.

 

[two]

I was tempted to mention Defender as an alternative but am suspicious of anything that comes out of MS

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[Gromett]

I was tempted to mention Defender as an alternative but am suspicious of anything that comes out of MS

Before I completely left MS/Windows. I tested the Windows defender and was extremely surprised MS produced something that good. I was quite surprised.

 

[Guigsy]

Not sure if I got this right, but the Russians had broken in so they could find weakness in the software that was deployed to people's PCs. They'd then hack PCs with Kaspersky and exploit it so when it was scanning for viruses, it'd report back if it found other files the Russian hackers might be interested in. I'm not sure if the Russians had actually tampered with the software, they just exploited flaws?

Wasn't the reason that the US found out about this because the Israelis were ALSO hacking Kaspersky's servers and they caught another bunch of hackers in the system at the same time?

I fully suspect that this is regular practice for state sponsored hackers. I expect lots of types of software from lots of providers will be similar. Picking on AV software is a good idea though as its job is to scan through your data.